Wayne Rooney's Future

Rooney: From White Pele To White Elephant

Amid Sir Alex Ferguson's Old Trafford farewell, there was a white elephant in the room. Or, more specifically, behind the double-glazing of an executive box, where Wayne Rooney sat out an emotionally-charged 90 minutes. A £300,000-a-week superstar striker, too good to sell, not good enough to play; omitted by request, drawing attention to himself by avoiding the spotlight.

Rooney's reported transfer request has been a bitter subplot to Ferguson's sudden retirement, bringing instability where the Scot sought continuity. Fergie himself — although no doubt happy to forward the Rooney issue onto David Moyes — has insisted the 27-year-old will not be sold. And yet the common consensus, not just amongst United fans, is that Rooney has reached an impasse in his Old Trafford career.

Once the leading man at the Theatre of Dreams, Rooney has this season found himself among the supporting cast. Whether Robin van Persie would've taken Rooney's lead striking role, regardless of the Liverpudlian's early season fitness problems, is now irrelevant. The Dutchman has acceded to the throne, now firmly established as the club's main goal source. Meanwhile, Rooney has had to take second billing in the way he so grudgingly did with Cristiano Ronaldo.

This gives Rooney reason to feel slighted; his 27-goal haul from 2011-12 was the most prolific of his Premier League career — and is unlikely to be surpassed by Van Persie this season. But, equally, he could hardly claim to have reached peak form during this title-winning canter. Ferguson himself has said that Rooney would've played more minutes, had he been fit — the pair reportedly fell out over the player's lifestyle.

Alex Ferguson has never resented Rooney a little post-season blowout (neither, like most Brits, being adverse to seeking comfort in alcohol). But the suggestion is that Rooney finds it increasingly hard to manage and maintain peak fitness. “As a striker I need to work hard all the time," he admits. "My fitness has to be right to play well. If it isn't, it shows.” And many believe it has been showing.

The imminent retirement of Michael Owen is a stark reminder that players — unless blessed with a physique capable of surviving 15 years at the top level and a side portion of luck — have limited shelf-life. Months before his own announcement, Owen stated that he had been “overplayed” as a youngster, highlighting the 316 Premier League games he featured in before the age of 24.

The sole player who had featured in more at that age is Rooney (380); a reminder of how much the Croxteth-raised forward has squeezed into his career. At 27, he has played only a handful fewer club games that 33-year-old Owen. “Physically I've taken a bit of a battering over the years,” Rooney confided earlier this season. “Being lumped by Transformer-sized centre-backs or having my muscles smashed by falls, shoulder barges and last-ditch tackles, day in, day out, has left me a bit bruised.”

It was a surprisingly frank admission of his own professional mortality. That the game of football is beginning to grind him down. A game that, legend has it, he would once play professionally at Goodison Park, before rushing into the Liverpool backstreets to carry on playing with his mates.

Of course, Rooney doesn't have to look far for proof that players can survive long-term at the peak of the professional game, none more so than the timeless Ryan Giggs. The irony may not have been lost when watching his 39-year-old teammate's superlative 1,000th game, in the Champions League second leg against Real Madrid, while Rooney sat out the biggest game of his club's season amid talk of a lack of match fitness.

“I’m not like Ryan Giggs, all bone and lean muscle,” he points out. “I gain weight quite easily. Even if I don’t train for a week, I put on two or three pounds, but when I get back to Carrington for the first day of (pre-season) I’m in for a shock. I’m stocky.”

This stockiness has served Rooney well against the Transformer-sized defenders, but it may not allow him to reach the greatness once expected of him. While Rooney was watching Giggs' virtuoso performance, another of his contemporaries, Cristiano Ronaldo, was having a match-winning say in the tie. The Englishman could be forgiven for watching the Portuguese with envy, not least for the Herculean physique which allowed the Ronaldo to become a goal machine of our times.

Rooney is 5ft 9in, 80kg and struggles to contain his weight. Ronaldo is 6ft 1in, 85kg and less than 7 per cent body fat. The Madrid forward consistently outshone Rooney during their shared time at Old Trafford — and while the Englishman subsequently proved himself capable of filling Ronaldo’s goalscoring boots, Ronaldo himself went on to prove himself the world’s (other) best player. Body envy can't be too prevalent at this level of the game, but while both were gifted great footballing brains, only one was given a physical stature to elevate to a different level.

Ronaldo can and may join any club he chooses (not least United, as the rumour mills have attempted to claim), but the immediate future for Rooney remains unclear. The title-winning victory over Aston Villa recently saw him deployed in a deeper role, a position long vaunted as his long-term future, away from the brunt of the attack where any physical limitations will not be so exposed. But Rooney is no more a midfielder than Steven Gerrard is a striker. Rooney possesses the technique and intelligence to survive a game in that role, but his instinct is still to seek the most direct line to goal. To make that positional transition at the very peak of the European game, at this stage of a career, is asking the improbable.

More likely is a move away from Old Trafford, and he is said to favour a transfer to Europe's most upwardly mobile club, Bayern Munich, while sources close to Paris St-Germain claim a £40m move is a "done deal". It was a telling endorsement by PSG centre-forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic which revealed much about Rooney's current status, when the Swede described Rooney as among the 10 best strikers in Europe. For most players an accolade, for the 2004 Fifa Golden Boy — once described as the "White Pele" by English fans — it was a backhanded compliment. Not one of the top five strikers in Europe. Not one of the top 10 players in Europe. Not even close to the standing held by Ronaldo and Messi, once Rooney's contemporaries.

Internationally, it is a crucial juncture for the striker, with time running out. In Brazil — should England make it — Rooney will be at his (supposed) peak of 28. By Russia 2018, he will be 32, in his 15th international season. He has perhaps three tournaments left to make good, and prove his finest international displays don't come in Nike adverts.

But it is at club level where his career is at a crossroads. Even if the responsibilities of success at Man United have extinguished a little of what made him brilliant, he remains very, very good, occasionally great — distinguished by more club honours than he could ever have wished. Whether his body will allow many more, be it in Paris, Munich or even Manchester, is another matter.